


Of Christmas Past and Present

by solar_celeste



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batfam Christmas Stocking 2019, Brother Feels, Brotherly Love, Christmas, Dick Grayson is a Good Brother, Elf (the movie), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen Batfam Christmas Stocking, Gift Fic, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Touch-Starved, over tired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:21:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21962782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solar_celeste/pseuds/solar_celeste
Summary: Damian’s childhood has left him unable to understand Christmas. Big Brother Dick is there to help.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne
Comments: 6
Kudos: 177





	Of Christmas Past and Present

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DawnsEternalLight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnsEternalLight/gifts).



> Set during Bruce’s ‘death’. 
> 
> Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

It was always freezing on Christmas Eve. It was Gotham, so naturally the temperatures were lower no matter the time of year but Christmas always seemed to come with a sort of bone numbing cold that couldn't be shaken with layers of blankets and expensive heating systems. Dick Grayson knows this, many winters in the city have taught him so, but this was Damian’s first Gotham winter and the boy seemed to be learning the city’s harsh ways as he shivered on the couch. 

The power had gone out nearly an hour before and there seemed to be an issue with the generator, which Dick had just tried -and  _ failed- _ to fix, they would have to call a specialist in the morning (Dick never was very good with handy-man work and knew next to  _ nothing  _ about the electrical heating the tower used to conserve energy). For the time being, he and Damian were both in their warmest pair of pajamas, the air in the penthouse quickly going cold without the heater. 

Dick was sifting through the closet once  _ again _ looking for more blankets, anything that could stop the kids incessant shivering. At first he had thought Damian was exaggerating, trying to be annoying about the outage and insisting that “ _ -you really should have been more prepared Grayson- _ “ but Damian hadn’t said a word. Just sat in the dark in his little cocoon, teeth chattering.

Then Dick thought,  _ yeah,  _ ‘course the brat would complain about the outage but Damian would  _ never _ complain about being  _ cold.  _ He practically had to drag the kid from patrol kicking and screaming when he had come down with that fever last month. No wait- he  _ had _ needed to do that. 

Pfft, like  _ hell  _ Damian would say a peep about being cold. 

Dick sighed, he was  _ trying  _ to convince himself that they were making some sort of progress, even if it was one step back and two steps forward it was  _ progress.  _ Alfred reminded him of that. 

( He found himself guilty of wishing the man’s vacation away. The butler  _ deserved  _ to spend the holiday in England with his family, no matter how out of his depths Dick was. )

“I found another blanket.” Dick said, shaking it out as he walked back to the living room. It was dark in there, and he should probably look for some candles or flashlights in addition to the fire so that they could actually  _ see.  _ Maybe in a minute, after he gave Damian the blanket…

In line with the boys usual behavior, Dick received no “thank you” for his hard work. Just a pair of shiny eyes following his movements as he draped the bl-

_ Wait.  _

_ Shiny  _ eyes?

Dick backtracked, stooping down to get a better look at the boy. It was hard to see in the dimly lit room (lit by nothing other than the gas fireplace beside them) but, yup, there was  _ definitely  _ a sheen to those wide green eyes. 

“Dames?” Dick asked, voice soft and as gentle as he could make it. “Are you okay?” He  _ hoped  _ the boy was okay, he hadn’t ever seen this side of Damian before. He had  _ no idea  _ how to handle a crying Damian, a crying ten year old, yes, but not  _ Damian.  _

The boy's shoulders tensed with the question and he seemed to sit up that much straighter, blanket falling off his shoulders slightly with the movement. He sniffed, so quietly it was nearly imperceptible, before clearing his throat and responding. 

“Tt. Of course, Grayson,” he said. The hardness of his tone was fake though, a facade to cover his true feelings. Or an  _ attempt  _ at a facade since even after the mere few months they had been together since Bruce’s death, Dick had a surprisingly easy time reading the boy. It honestly wasn’t that hard to spot the inaccuracies if you paid attention to Damian’s usual mannerisms.

For example; there hadn’t been a comment about “that  _ inane  _ nickname, Grayson”. 

“Nuh-uh. What did we say about trust, huh? It works both ways. Tell me what’s been bugging you.” Dick said, settling on one knee in front of the boy. 

Damian remained silent, no sound other than the cracking of the fire, tiny fingers fumbling with the blanket on his lap. Dick wondered how they didn’t break, those nimble fingers, when the boy punched the lights out of criminals three times his own size. 

“Well,” Dick tried again, “there’s something bothering  _ me _ .” Damian looked up, big eyes silently questioning the older man. “I’m upset that  _ you’re  _ upset and I can't fix that until you tell me what’s the matter.”

It was probably a low blow, blaming the boy line that but, if it worked…

“It’s Christmas Eve…” The boy started, eyes downcast and shoulders hunched in. 

Dick furrowed his brows, “and?”

“And… and I’m not sure what that means?” Damian added, not very confident in his own words. Dick was even more confused, the boy didn’t know what Christmas was? He had thought that Talia would have at least  _ informed  _ the boy of the holiday, even if he was sure Santa hadn’t been visiting the leagues compound. 

“What?” Dick asked.

“Everyone’s always speaking of how  _ ‘magical’ _ Christmas is and- and I’m not even sure what they mean. I-“ 

Dick must have been doing a bad job of hiding his surprise at the boys admission because Damain stopped himself there. He was looking at Dick apprehensively, muscles tense like he was preparing to up and run. His eyes still twinkled in the dark. 

“Did I say something I shouldn’t have?” He asked. 

“W-what? No?” Dick said. “You don’t know what Christmas is?” 

“Well… I know the  _ basics.”  _ Damian hurried to add. Dick nodded, narrowing his eyes, that couldn’t be all, definitely  _ wasn’t  _ the reason the kid was almost  _ crying. _ Damian’s emotional barriers were too thick to be torn down by a small moment of  _ ignorance _ .

“Is that the only thing on your mind?” Dick asked. He almost wished that he hadn’t, for in the next moment the boy’s walls really did crumble, his face pinching up in that way any child’s does before a meltdown. Dicks heart hurt for the kid as he tried to think of what to do, he had  _ never  _ seen Damian cry before. 

“ _ Why?”  _ The boy cried, voice thick with his tears. 

“Why what, Dames?” Dick asked. He noticed the dark circles under the kids eyes then, how the boys reaction was most definitely a result of emotional build up and lack of sleep. 

Damian shook his head, refusing to say more and, really, Dick should be surprised that he even got as much as he did. 

He could fill in the rest himself anyway.  _ Why was Damian born the way he was, to who he was? Why was Talia so cruel? Why did Bruce not know? Why did Bruce have to  _ die? 

Why was life so  _ unfair? _

Dick thought about an alternate universe almost everyday. The ‘what-ifs’. What Damian would be like if Bruce  _ had  _ known and the boy had grown up in Gotham, if Bruce would have gotten his shit together and actually raised the boy the appropriate way. Really though, Dick assumed anything was better than Talia. Bruce had had his moments but he had been pretty great to Dick.

Life  _ was  _ unfair. It wasn’t right that Damian had these demons to live with, how the ten year old had more scars than some war vets and enough ptsd to last him a lifetime. 

It was unfair that Bruce had died, that Dick had no idea what he was doing, that Damian didn’t know what  _ Christmas  _ was.

Suddenly, the power outage didn’t seem so bothersome.

“Hey, hey,” Dick said. He moved quickly, wedging himself next to the boy on the couch and tugging Damian’s small weight onto his lap. Instead of lashing out at him, Damian melted into the touch, tensing first at its unfamiliarity before sighing with relief. Dick felt  _ bad _ , the boy had probably been  _ starved  _ of comfort. 

“I’m  _ so  _ sorry Dami, for everything.” 

At Dicks words, Damian stiffened again, seemingly realizing what he was doing.

He sniffed, “I- I- I shouldn’t-.” But Dick didn’t let him finish, instead, he cupped the back of the kids neck and pulled him close again. 

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s  _ okay _ to cry, Dami, I  _ promise _ .” Dick rocked the boy gently, rubbing his back.  _ Since when had Dick been good with kids? _

Five minutes of rocking more and the boys sobs has tapered off to occasional sniffs. Too embarrassed to make eye contact, Damain kept his face firmly buried into the older man’s shoulder. 

“Did you charge your tablet?” Dick suddenly asked into the dark. Damian nodded into his neck. Dick smiled, getting up with the boy still against him and snagged said tablet off of the kitchen counter. 

“There’s this really funny movie I always watch around Christmas, I think you might like it,” Dick said.

“Is it fictional?” Damian mumbled.

“Some parts of it,” Dick said. He brought the two to back to the couch, settling underneath the blankets for more warmth, the fire gave off some heat but it was still cold without the heater. “It’s called  _ Elf _ , it’s one of my favorites.” 

Damian unburied himself once they were settled, his face was red and snotty and Dicks shirt was damp but neither mentioned it. 

Dick clicked the tablet to life, queuing up the movie. Dick waited and, just as he had hoped, as soon as Papa Elf came on screen Damian snickered. Then, by some amazing Christmas miracle, and because the cruel world did have its little mercies, the generator clicked on. The Christmas lights Dick had coaxed Alfred and Damian into hanging relit and and the tree flared to life. The fire roared beyond their feet and and the heat flicked on above them. Damian was snuggled against him, overtired but warm and  _ safe  _ and  _ there.  _

Dick smiled, pulling the small boy that much closer. “This,” he said,”  _ this is _ Christmas, Dami.”

And Dames looked back up to him with every intent of insulting whatever asinine movie  _ Elf  _ was and said: “Merry Christmas, Grayson.” 

It may always be freezing on Christmas Eve, but Damian’s found that his brother’s body heat was an acceptable fix. 

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda strayed from the prompt... sorry. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ 
> 
> BTW, DawnsEternalLight is one of my favorite authors so I was really hyped for this one :) 
> 
> Comments and kudos are always welcome!


End file.
